I was taking a cab ride home from a friends place and then this driver got all worked up and demanded I pay him, halfway to my destination, on baseline at 4am. I had the funds to pay for the cab, but this guy insisted I give him cash to "prove" that I had money to pay for the actual ride. I said that I would pay when I got to my destination, but he insisted very aggressively that I pay him then and there. I called him out on his rudeness and demanded that I be put in contact with someone to file a complaint, then he pulls over in the middle of baseline road and tells me to "get the fuck out of his cab". The guy was the ultimate dick. I had to wait 30 minutes in the cold to get another cab, which was Westway. The westway cab driver was way nicer and accepted my money. Anyway, what other taxi companies are there beside this shit company blueline?

I am not surprised. I was driving down Colonel By and had a cabby tail gate me so close, that his headlights vanished behind my trunk lid (as in, so close, that his lights were shining directly onto my license plate, but no longer into my car ... THAT close). I could tell it was some Mid-Eastern guy, not even on his phone.... just tailgating me, thinking he'll make me go faster (when there were like 10 cars in front of me, going slow).

Every other time I am on the parkway (airport), I get cut off, tailgated, etc. I can't stand taxi drivers.

I was driving in a 50km zone during the middle of the day. This particular street often has cops with radar guns pointed in the direction I was coming from. I was of course going 50km the whole way before even getting to the cop hideout. Taxi tailgating me all the way, honking at me, even. Then the police came into view and buddy backed off...until they were out of sight. Back into my bumper he went. Nothing but a single yellow line down the middle of the road was stopping him from passing me. No on coming cars at all.

THEN we get to a 30km zone. Guess how mad he was when I dropped to 30km/h? LoL. He honked, and I honked right back. Again, no oncoming traffic in the opposite lane. Got to a stop sign and I fully stopped. When I turned the corner onto a 4 lane road, the BlueLine taxi screeched around me almost peeling out and speeding past me... On a 50km road, probably going 75km/80km.

Had a horrible experience with Blueline years ago. Booked a taxi to leave from a friends apartment around Lees to go to the train station with a large group of people. In the end we got two cars. First car, no problems. The second car, and the one I was in, the driver made up a rule that if you book a car for a certain time, you had to pay a minimum of $25.00. We tried to write down his name but he stole the pen from a friends hand(this was well before cell phones had cameras) and wouldn't let us pay what the meter said. I pulled out my phone to call his dispatcher and ask about it, he kicked us out and said we were banned from Blueline and we would be sued. Of course nothing happened, but that experience soured me on them completely. And no, the other car was not given the you have to pay $25.00.

I've actually had blueline give me a free ride before. I was walking off campus at 2am last winter when the cab drove past me. He stopped about 100yards up the road and started backing up. When he got back to where I was, he asked me which direction I was going. He was headed the same way and offered a free ride. I was dropped off about 3 minutes from my house, saving about 30 minutes of walking through the cold.

It was funny because I was debating flagging him down in the first place, but figured I couldn't because I didn't have any money to spare.

I would say its more like the opinion that a sirloin steak isn't as good as a tenderloin. but its sure as fuck better than a hotdog. Try living in a city other than Ottawa,Toronto,Vancouver, Montreal or Edmonton and see how the local transit system treats you.

For example: Windsor has like 11 bus lines total, and has about 220K to Ottawas 850K population. Its entire bus system is about 10% the size of OCtranspo, its unreliable as fuck and most routes only go 1 direction.

After I waved down a Blueline cab in bad weather the driver gave me the ride for free (didn't start the meter and only explained after I asked him about it) because the destination was a couple blocks away, Didn't even take a tip!

My girlfriend and I have had multiple shitty experiences with blueline. Unbelievably rude, demanding cash over credit or "get out", going the wrong way by mistake but keeping the meter on. One even threatened us, drove like a maniac, then slowed down near my vehicle after dropping us off — pretty scary. Considered calling the cops after that particular one.

This isn't blueline specific, but the majority of shittier experiences tend to be in them. Most likely because they are the largest around.

I've taken cabs all over the place; Halifax, Montreal, San Francisco, Syracuse, St John's, NYC, Vancouver... Ottawa takes the cake for the rudest. By far.

I've never had a bad taxi ride when I've been riding on them sober. Have you ever been loud, on the phone, or rude in the first place? Maybe there's something you could change so that you don't have such a shitty experience, if it keeps happening to you.

Not at all! The worst one I described was when I was stone cold sober, tired (which doesn't mean grumpy btw), and had just come off a flight. I'm never loud — and I rarely talk on my phone, always text.

To think of it, they are actually generally much more receptive to a rowdy, loud bunch. Always seem to smirk when I've been with a group during a night out (which is once in a blue moon).

I used to cab home from work late at night, and since my work has blueline taxi chits, that's what I always took. You always get a mix with cabbies. I had one that insisted on driving the wrong way down a one way road that was under construction, and almost got us killed. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I had a cab driver who let me play games on his ipad on the way home.

I was shopping for groceries the other night, minus ten degrees outside, with plenty of wind. I call Blueline, am told they would be there in 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes comes and goes, meanwhile I'm standing outside freezing my ass off with a cart full of groceries...(in Vanier). Fucking call the company and they rudely tell me off about having just called fifteen minutes ago (?), and they snap "he'll be another six minutes". It was then I knew I was pretty much fucked, and called Capital. Got there in five minutes, dude was super friendly. I'm only using them now. FUCK BLUELINE!

Ill give you an insider's thing here, I've worked there, Its not the same company, just same dispatching in the building, this dispatch company is used all over north america for 7 different companies. its also an hq.

your argument would be valid if it actually said they owned it but it doesn't And i worked there for a year, they do not OWN those cab lines the dispatch and represent their customer service needs BUT again they do not OWN them.

I used to work at loblaws elmvale, where there was a grocery pickup service, sometimes people would be waiting for taxis for over an hour during the winter in the dark on a weeknight. And yes they would be told something along the lines of "it will only be 10 minutes". On multiple occasions I would let them inside the building after closing time because it was just too cold outside and I knew blueline would be a pile of lying shit to them.

The level of regulation involved makes the taxi industry in Ottawa as close to an arm of the government as it can be, while still having private ownership. And those private companies do very well with the forced restrictions on supply and competition that the government provides them.

Meh. I've had the same thing happen, only once. I paid the guy and gave zero tip. I figure it's his right to insist, but also my right to financially indicate my displeasure with being treated like a potential thief.

In general, I can't complain. I'd say Blueline (and Ottawa) are towards the better end of things. I've been to many cities way worse (most of the US, including skimming my credit card for fraud more than once. Use cash in Philly, even if you're travelling for work and it's easier to use credit) and only one really stand-out better (London, England)

Blueline gets complaints ALL the time about EVERYTHING. From rape,to bitchy drivers, to not showing up on time or at all for that matter. Sorry bout your shitty experience. My go to for late nights is "Underground Taxi". They are a less well-known but still legit cab service that drive unmarked vehicles of different varieties. I always get nice drivers who are willing to chat if you want or stay quiet if you need and they are ALWAYS on time. Of course getting the number is a bit of a trick.

I don't think calling them "legit" really works here as they are illegal. However I have used them too and they are just all around better than the actual legit companies. I actually feel safer using underground taxis.

Blueline is the biggest in Ottawa and honestly one of the best - sucks that you had a bad experience with one driver but there are hundreds more that are better than he was. There are bad drivers in every company. But anyway, Capital, Westway, DJ, and Airport if you're getting to the airport. There's this private one called "Executive Cabs" or something that I've seen around the city a few times.

The license plate for Blueline is $100,000 compared to the Capital one which is only about $25,000.

Just to correct your figures - a City of Ottawa Taxi Plate is presently about $330,000 if it's affiliated with Blue Line. If its affiliated with Capital/WestWay/etc its about $300,000 because nobody wants to work for them. Of the ~1200 cabs in Ottawa, some 600 are Blue Line affiliated, with the remaining 600 being divided amongst Capital/WestWay/DJs/Airport.

My old man owns one, and I drove a cab part time for about 7-years through University. If he paid $100,000, then he probably "bought a lease," which is a convoluted but long-standing practice. It's also possible your father bought one of those wheelchair accessible van plates, which are considerably less valuable because they have a lot of restrictions and higher operating costs.

If you're trying to deny that taxi drivers in this city are as aggressive as the average driver, well, you need to spend some more time downtown.

The amount of times I've nearly been hit while on my bike or walking - I can't even count it on my hands and toes anymore.

I'm sure there are some great taxi drivers. The majority - at least downtown - seem to be nuts. Maybe it's because the faster they go, the more fares they can do in a day, or maybe it's just the stress of driving in a busy city for however many hours a day, but, either way - it sucks.

Ultimately, behavior like that isn't justifiable in any way - especially when you're offering a service / representing a company.

I will agree, from my personal experience, the craziest shit I've seen has been from taxis, and it seems to happen more frequently. But that "honk at the car that's waiting for pedestrians to cross" thing happens all the time. Not so much flailing out the window and swearing, but the impatience is there.

Honking and impatience - absolutely. Escalating a situation to that extent though is borderline lunacy.

Had I been an aggressive person, who knows what could have happened if I got out of the car, you know? Had my girlfriend felt threatened and advanced out of his way, she could have hit oncoming traffic or those people. It creates a dangerous environment that's so insanely unnecessary.

The fact that this guy dropped me off in the middle of a road, during a cold night and started to yell at me for not paying for a service that had not been completed tells me a lot about the company. Thanks for info on the other cab companies, i'll check them out next time.

As I understand it, individual cab drivers are fairly autonomous in Ottawa. I believe most drivers own their own vehicles, and affiliate themselves with one company or another for dispatching, fuel, and maintenance purposes. That's the impression I get from talking to taxi drivers, at least.

So in short, you're going to get good ones and bad ones with every company, there's not much you can do about it.

Sort of. All cabs are independent and their only affiliation with a company is for the dispatch services. The cab owner (typically the guy driving during the day) owns the car/plate and is responsible for maintenance and pays the company he works for $x00/month for dispatch services. The guy typically driving at night pays the guy who owns the car/plate $xx/shift. Both drivers are responsible for their own fuel/insurance.

Sounds just like a bad experience. I left my cellphone in a blue line cab once, really late at night. The cab driver drove all the way across town at 2am to bring it back to me, and told me no charge. He got a twenty dollar tip for the good service anyway.

Similar, I had a Blueline cab drive way out of the way. My friends and I were heading to a party and we not familiar with the route. I had my phone out and I was following his route on my GPS app. I called him out and he blamed it on his GPS for taking is an extra 10 min out of our way.

First off, it's a by-law that after 10pm if a taxi driver feels suspicious of his/her customer to demand a prepaid ride. This means if you're going from downtown to baseline he could request $30-40 or as much as he likes. You are entitled to give him that or leave. So if you do decide to give him that amount, and the meter says you owe him $23.45 for example, by-law the driver must give you your full change.

Secondly, you'll have this experience with any cab company in Ottawa whether it's west way, blue line, capital or DJ's. Blue line is the biggest fleet in ottawa with 572 taxi cabs, so you're bound to get the occasional asshole, in the end we're all humans.

Filling a complaint, would do nothing but a waste of time cause firstly, the driver did nothing illegal, secondly filing a complaint about the cab driver being rude would not fire him because he wasn't hiried by blue line, its the other away around, taxi drivers in ottawa hire these company's such as blue line, DJs, westway, capital, to dispatch there fares and do all the paper work.

I'm a fulltime student in Carleton university in my third year of Economics and i work as a taxi driver in blue line.

Even say everyone in ottawa stopped calling blue line due to bad behavior, all taxi drivers will switch to other cab companies. Its an easy process, it happened before.